I know everyone is most likely sick of hearing about my trip, but I cannot recommend enough taking a trip to Nagasaki. I stayed at a really good hotel in a downtown area for 8,000 yen a night. That’s less than $80USD. It was a very nice hotel. Meals usually set me back like 1200-1600 yen. I’m talking like AMAZING sushi until I wanted to puked from eating so much. Getting around was so insanely easy. Getting through customs in Japan was a breeze. I can’t speak a lick of Japanese other than the Styxx song and I had no real issue. Absolutely zero crime. People incredibly friendly. Really the only downside was the TV in my hotel was zero English channels and the wifi was kind of shitty. But hell…who wants to stay in their hotel.

My next trip is to 8 mile Detroit.

I want to cry…

Greetings folks. Finally back to my apartment after my trip. Good god that was tough. The night before I left, I stopped at the best bar of the far east, Jimmy’s Graceland. I tell Jimmy I have to leave, first thing in the morning, to catch the first bus to the Nagasaki Airport. So one last beer for the road.

He gives me a beer. Then when I go to leave, he tells me one on the house. So I’m drinking that and Jimmy asks me to explain what the lyrics are to Route 66. Seems when he hears the song, he hears “Lick my wrists Route 66”. I explain its “Get my kicks on Route 66”. So he keeps playing the song on youtube and I try to explain the lyrics. This is how I learn that Jimmy never actually knows any of the songs or even how to play them. He just keeps listening to them until he thinks he figures it out. The dude doesn’t even know how to read sheet music…which considering how good he is on the guitar, is fucking amazing.

He starts bugging me to explain other lyrics to songs he like. So I end up just looking up on my phone and then I show him the result of the particular song. Jimmy is ecstatic. He then says something like “Do you think website for song by CCR?”

“No Jimmy, you just go to this website and type the song in the search bar, and it shows you the lyric”.

I thought Jimmy was going to cry. He grabs a bottle of whiskey and two shot glasses.

“Jimmy, I am almost out of yen and I have to get on a bus in eight hours”

“One for road. You help me. Free shot”

A bottle and a half of whiskey later, both me and Jimmy are so shitfaced that I have to help him close his bar and he has to help me stumble to my hotel. At this point, my English sounded like bad Japanese and his Japanese sounded like bad English.

Sobering up on a trans-Pacific flight is fucking nightmarish.

I am really gonna miss that haunt.